From 1858 during Ottoman rule, a process of sedentarization was imposed on the Negev Bedouin which accelerated after the founding of Israel.[4] In the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, most resettled in neighbouring regions. Between 1968 and 1989, Israel built seven townships in the northeast of the Negev for the Bedouin population, with about half of them relocating to these areas. Others remained in unrecognized villages built without planning which lacked basic services such as electricity and running water. The Israeli government has gradually recognized some of them and taken measures to improve infrastructure and basic services, while the majority are slated for destruction with the population facing forced displacement.[5][6] The Prawer Plan was drawn up to address land ownership claims and compensation. The plan also called for the evacuation of 35 unrecognized villages and the resettlement of residents in existing or new towns. According to human rights organizations opposed to the plan, it discriminated against the Bedouin population of the Negev and violated the community's historic land rights.[7] In December 2013, the plan was rescinded.[8]

The Bedouin population in the Negev numbers 200,000-210,000. Just over half of them live in seven government-built Bedouin-only towns; the remaining 90,000 live in 46 villages – 35 of which are unrecognized and 11 of which were officially recognized 10 years ago.[2][5]

The rate of growth of the Negev Bedouin is the highest in the world – the Bedouin population doubles its size every 15 years.[9]

Negev Bedouin are formerly nomadic and later also semi-nomadic Arabs who live by rearing livestock in the deserts of southern Israel. The community is traditional and conservative, with a well-defined value system that directs and monitors behaviour and interpersonal relations.[10]

The Negev Bedouin tribes have been divided into three classes, according to their origin: descendants of ancient Arabian nomads (originated from the Arabian peninsula, mainly from Saudi Arabia[11]), descendants of Sinai Bedouin tribes, and Palestinian peasants (Fellaheen) who came from cultivated areas.[12]Al-Tarabin tribe is the largest tribe in the Negev and the Sinai Peninsula, Al-Tarabin along with Al-Tayaha, and Al-Azazma are the largest tribes in the Negev.[13]

Counter to the image of the Bedouin as fierce stateless nomads roving the entire region, by the turn of the 20th century, much of the Bedouin population in Palestine was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access.[14][15]

Today, many Bedouin call themselves 'Negev Arabs' rather than 'Bedouin', explaining that 'Bedouin' identity is intimately tied in with a pastoral nomadic way of life – a way of life they say is over. Although the Bedouin in Israel continue to be perceived as nomads, today all of them are fully sedentarized, and about half are urbanites.[16]

Nevertheless, Negev Bedouin continue to possess sheep and goats: In 2000 the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that the Negev Bedouin owned 200,000 head of sheep and 5,000 of goats, while Bedouin estimates referred to 230,000 sheep and 20,000 goats.[17]

Historically, the Bedouin engaged in nomadic herding, agriculture and sometimes fishing. They also earned income by transporting goods and people[18] across the desert.[19] Scarcity of water and of permanent pastoral land required them to move constantly. The first recorded nomadic settlement in Sinai dates back 4,000-7,000 years.[19] The Bedouin of the Sinai peninsula migrated to and from the Negev.[20]

The Bedouin established very few permanent settlements; however, some evidence remains of traditional baika buildings, seasonal dwellings for the rainy season when they would stop to engage in farming. Cemeteries known as "nawamis" dating to the late fourth millennium B.C. have been also found. Similarly, open-air mosques (without a roof) dating from the early Islamic period are common and still in use.[21] The Bedouin conducted extensive farming on plots scattered throughout the Negev.[22]

In the 7th century, the IslamicUmayyad dynasty defeated the Byzantine armies, conquering Palestine. The Umayyads began sponsoring building programs throughout Palestine, a region in close proximity to the dynastic capital in Damascus, and the Bedouin flourished. However, this activity decreased after the capital was moved to Baghdad during the subsequent Abbasid reign.[23]

Most of the Negev Bedouin tribes migrated to the Negev from the Arabian Desert, Transjordan, Egypt, and the Sinai from the 18th century onwards.[24][25] Traditional Bedouin lifestyle began to change after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. The rise of the puritanical Wahhabi sect forced them to reduce their raiding of caravans. Instead, the Bedouin acquired a monopoly on guiding pilgrim caravans to Mecca, as well as selling them provisions. The opening of the Suez canal reduced the dependence on desert caravans and attracted the Bedouin to newly formed settlements that sprung up along the canal.[19]

Bedouin sedentarization begun under Ottoman rule[26] following the need in establishing law and order in the Negev - the Ottoman Empire viewed the Bedouins as a threat to the state's control.[14] In 1858, a new Ottoman Land Law was issued that offered the legal grounds for the displacement of the Bedouin. Under the Tanzimat reforms instituted as the Ottoman Empire gradually lost power, the Ottoman Land Law of 1858 instituted an unprecedented land registration process which was also meant to boost the empire's tax base. Few Bedouin opted to register their lands with the Ottoman Tapu, due to lack of enforcement by the Ottomans, illiteracy, refusal to pay taxes and lack of relevance of written documentation of ownership to the Bedouin way of life at that time.[27]

At the end of the 19th century Sultan Abdülhamid II undertook other measures in order to control the Bedouin. As a part of this policy he settled loyal Muslim populations (Circassians) from the Balkan and Caucuses among the areas predominantly populated by the nomads, and also created several permanent Bedouin settlements, although the majority of them did not remain.[14] In 1900 an urban administrative center of Beersheva was established in order to extend governmental control over the area.

Another measure initiated by the Ottoman authorities was the private acquisition of large plots of state land offered by the sultan to the absentee landowners (effendis). Numerous tenants were brought in order to cultivate the newly acquired lands.

And the main trend of settling non-Bedouin population in the Palestine remained until the last days of the empire. By the 20th century much of the Bedouin population was settled, semi-nomadic, and engaged in agriculture according to an intricate system of land ownership, grazing rights, and water access.[28]

During World War I, the Negev Bedouin fought with the Turks against the British, but later withdrew from the conflict. Hamad Pasha al-Sufi (died 1923), Sheikh of the Nijmat sub-tribe of the Tarabin, led a force of 1,500 men which joined the Turkish offensive against the Suez Canal.[29]

The main tribes of the Negev Al-Tarabin, Al-Tayaha, Al-Azazma united and formed force of 1500 armed Bedouins under the leadership of Sheikh Hammad Basha Al-Sufi, they moved to Sinai and in 15 November 1914 they attacked two battalions of the British army, soldiers of the first battalion were entirely killed, the second battalion were captured. During the Sheikh Al-Sufi presence in Sinai Al-Sawarka tribe occupied region Qararah in Khan Younis and the expelled its inhabitants from Al-Hanagerh tribe and Al-Tarabin, Sheikh Al-Sufi led Al-Tarabin tribe to fight Al-Sawarka tribe in Khan Younis they fought them siege them, Al-Sawarka asked truce and safety from Al-Tarabin tribe and Sheikh Al-Sufi ordered them to leave all into the Sinai.[30]

The British Mandate in Palestine brought order to the Negev; however, this order was accompanied by losses in sources of income and poverty among the Bedouin. The Bedouin nevertheless retained their lifestyle, and a 1927 report describes them as the "untamed denizens of the Arabian deserts."[19] The British also established the first formal schools for the Bedouin.[10]

In Orientalist historiography, the Negev Bedouin have been described as remaining largely unaffected by changes in the outside world until recently. Their society was often considered a "world without time."[4] Recent scholars have challenged the notion of the Bedouin as 'fossilized,' or 'stagnant' reflections of an unchanging desert culture. Emanuel Marx has shown that Bedouin were engaged in a constantly dynamic reciprocal relation with urban centers.[31] Bedouin scholar Michael Meeker explains that "the city was to be found in their midst."[32]

The British Mandate authorities, laws and bureaucracy favored settled groups above pastoral nomads and they found it hard to fit in the Negev Bedouin into their system of governance, thus the Mandate's policy regarding the Bedouin tribes of Palestine was often of an ad hoc nature.[14]

But eventually, as had happened with the Ottoman authorities, the British turned to coercion. Several regulations were issued, such as the Bedouin Control Ordinance (1942), meant to provide the administration with "special powers of control of nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes with the object of persuading them towards a more settled way of life". The ample powers of the Ordinance empowered the District Commissioner to direct the Bedouin "to go to, or not go to, or to remain in any specified area".[14]

Mandatory land policies created legal and demographic pressures for sedentarization, and by the end of the British Mandate the majority of the Bedouin were settled. They built some 60 new villages and dispersed settlements, populated by 27,500 people in 1945, according to the Mandate authorities.[14] The only exception were the Negev Bedouin who remained semi-nomadic, but it was clear that sooner or later they will be settled, too.

Prior to the founding of Israel, the Negev’s population consisted almost entirely of 110,000 Bedouin.[33]

During the war, most Negev Bedouin favoured the Arab side of the conflict and thus fled or were expelled to Jordan, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip, West Bank. In March 1948 Bedouin and semi-Bedouin communities begun to leave their homes and encampments in response to Palmach retaliation raids following attacks on water-pipelines to Jewish cities.[34] On 16 August 1948 the Negev Brigade launched a full-scale clearing operation in the Kaufakha-Al Muharraqa area displacing villagers and Bedouin for military reasons.[35] At the end of September the Yiftach Brigade launched an operation west of Mishmar Hanegev expelling Arabs and confiscating their livestock.[36] In early 1949 the Israeli army moved thousands of Bedouin from south and west of Beersheba to a concentration zone east of the town. In November 1949, 500 families were expelled across the border into Jordan and on September 2, 1950 some 4,000 Bedouin were forced across the border with Egypt.,[37] Only around 11,000 of the 110,000 Bedouin population remained in the Negev.[38]

During the 1948 Palestine War, Nahum Sarig, the Palmach commander in the Negev, instructed his officers that "Our job is to appear before the Arabs as a ruling force which functions forcefully but with justice and fairness". With the provisions that they avoid harming women, children and friendly Arabs the orders stated that shepherds grazing on Jewish land should be driven off by gun-fire, that searches of Arab settlements be conducted "politely but firmly" and "you are permitted to execute any man found in possession of a weapon".[39]

Of the approximately 110,000 Bedouin who lived in the area before the war about 11,000 remained. Most had relocated from the northwestern to the northeastern Negev.[38]

Due to destabilizing tribal wars from 1780 to 1890 many Negev Bedouins tribes forced to move to southern Jordan, Sinai peninsula. After the tribal war of 1890, tribal land boundaries remained fixed until the 1948 war, by which time the Beduin of the Negev numbered approximately 110,000, and were organized into 95 tribes and clans.[40]

When Beersheba was occupied by the Israeli army in 1948, 90% of the Bedouin population of the Negev were deported – mainly to Jordan and Gaza.[41] Of the approximately 110,000 Bedouin who lived in the Negev before the war about 11,000 remained.[38]

The Bedouins refugees and their descendants in Jordan were given citizenship and were called (Al-Sbaawiah) (Arabic: السبعاوية‎) they make up approximately 1 million of the Jordan population.

The first Israeli government headed by Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion opposed the return of the Bedouin from Jordan and Egypt. At first he wanted to expel the few remaining Bedouin but changed his mind. The lands were nationalized and the area was declared a military zone. The government saw the Negev as a potential home for the masses of Jewish immigrants, including 700,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands. In the following years, some 50 Jewish settlements were established in the Negev.[42]

The Bedouin who remained in the Negev belonged to the Tiaha confederation[22] as well as some smaller groups such as the 'Azazme and the Jahalin. They were relocated by the Israeli government in the 1950s and 1960s to a restricted zone in the northeast corner of the Negev, called the Siyagh (Arabic: السياغ‎ Hebrew: אזור הסייג‎, an Arabic word that can be translated as the "permitted area") made up of in 10% of the Negev desert in the northeast.[43][44]

In 1951, the United Nations reported the deportation of about 7,000 Negev Bedouin to Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Sinai, but many returned undetected.[45] The new government failed to issue the Bedouin identity cards until 1952 and deported thousands of Bedouin who remained within the new borders.[46] Deportation continued into the late 1950s, as reported by Haaretz newspaper in 1959: "The army's desert patrols would turn up in the midst of a Bedouin encampment day after day, dispersing it with a sudden burst of machine-gun fire until the sons of the desert were broken and, gathering what little was left of their belongings, led their camels in long silent strings into the heart of the Sinai desert."[16]

Israel's land policy was adapted to a large extent from the Ottoman land regulations of 1858. According to the 1858 Ottoman Land Law, lands that were not registered as of private ownership, were considered state lands. But Bedouins were not motivated to register lands they lived on, because land ownership meant additional responsibilities for them, including taxation and military duty, and it created a new problem since they found it hard to prove their ownership rights. Israel relied mainly on Tabu recordings. Most of the Bedouin land fell under the Ottoman class of 'non-workable' (mawat) land and thus belonged to the state under Ottoman law. Israel nationalized most of the Negev lands, using The Land Rights Settlement Ordinance from 1969.[4][47][48]

Israel's policies regarding the Negev Bedouin at first included regulation and re-location. During the 1950s Israel has re-located two-thirds of the Negev Bedouins into an area that was under a martial law.[47] Bedouin tribes were concentrated in the Siyagh (Arabic for "the permitted area") triangle of Beer Sheva, Arad and Dimona.[16]

At the same time Bedouin herding was restricted by land expropriation.[10] The Black Goat Law of 1950 curbed grazing so as to prevent land erosion, prohibiting the grazing of goats outside recognized land holdings. Because few Bedouin territorial claims were recognized, most grazing was rendered illegal. Since both Ottoman and British land registration processes had failed to reach into the Negev region before Israeli rule, and since most Bedouin preferred not to register their lands, few Bedouin possessed any documentation of their land claims. Those whose land claims were recognized found it almost impossible to keep their goats within the periphery of their newly limited range. Into the 1970s and 1980s, only a small portion of the Bedouin were able to continue to graze their goats, and instead of migrating with their goats in search of pasture, most Bedouin migrated in search of work.[16]

Despite state hegemony over the Negev, the Bedouin regarded 600,000 dunams (600 km2 or about 150,000 acres) of the Negev as theirs, and later petitioned the government for their return.[49] Various claims committees were established to make legal arrangements to solve land disputes at least partially, but no proposals acceptable to both sides were approved.[48] In the 1950s, as a consequence of losing access to their lands, many Bedouin men sought work on Jewish farms in the Negev.[4] However, preference was given to Jewish labor, and as of 1958, employment in the Bedouin male population was less than 3.5%.[4]

IDF Chief Moshe Dayan was in favor of transfer the Bedouin to the center of the country in order to eliminate land claims and create a cadre of urban laborers.[42] In 1963, he told Haaretz:[50]

"We should transform the Bedouin into an urban proletariat - in industry, services, construction, and agriculture. 88% of the Israeli population are not farmers, let the Bedouin be like them. Indeed, this will be a radical move which means that the Bedouin would not live on his land with his herds, but would become an urban person who comes home in the afternoon and puts his slippers on. His children will get used to a father who wears pants, without a dagger, and who does not pick out their nits in public. They will go to school, their hair combed and parted. This will be a revolution, but it can be achieved in two generations. Without coercion but with governmental direction ... this phenomenon of the Bedouins will disappear."

Ben-Gurion supported this idea, but the Bedouin strongly opposed. Later, the proposal was withdrawn.

IDF commander Yigal Allon proposed to concentrate the Bedouin in some large townships within the Siyag. This proposal resembled an earlier IDF plan, which intended to secure land suitable for settling Jews and setting up IDF bases as well as to remove the Bedouin from key Negev routes.[42]

Those who moved into these townships were mainly the Bedouin with no land claims.[53]

According to Ben Gurion University's Negev Center for Regional Development, the towns were built without an urban policy framework, business districts or industrial zones;[54] as Harvey Lithwick of the Negev Center for Regional Development explains: "...the major failure was a lack of an economic rationale for the towns..."[55] According to Lithwick, and Ismael and Kathleen Abu Saad of Ben Gurion University, the towns quickly became among the most deprived towns in Israel, severely lacking in services such as public transport and banks.[10] The urban townships were plagued by endemic joblessness and resulting cycles of crime and drug trafficking.[54]

The Bedouin of Tarabin clan have moved into a township built for them, Tirabin al-Sana. The Bedouin of al-'Azazme clan will take part in the planning of a new quarter that will be erected for them to west of Segev Shalom township, cooperating with The Authority for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev.[56]

According to a State Comptroller report from 2002, the Bedouin townships were built with minimal investment, and infrastructure in the seven townships had not improved much in the span of three decades. In 2002, most homes were not connected to the sewage system, the water supply was erratic and the roads were not adequate.[57] Lessons were learned and new policies have been implemented since then, with the Israeli government allocating special funds to improve the wellbeing of the Negev Bedouin.

In 2008, a railway station opened near the largest Bedouin town in the Negev, Rahat (Lehavim-Rahat Railway Station), improving the transportation situation. Since 2009, Galim buses have been operating in Rahat.

On 16 September 2014 it was announced that 12,500 Bedouins would be moved to a new area in the Jordan Valley north of Jericho, in prefab homes, put up by Israel.[58]

Those Bedouin who resisted sedentarization and urban life remained in their villages. In 2007, 39-45 villages were not recognized by the state and were thus ineligible for municipal services such as connection to the electrical grid, water mains or trash-pickup.[53]

According to a 2007 report of the Israel Land Authority, 40% of the population were living in unrecognized villages,[59] Many insist on remaining in unrecognized villages in the hope of retaining their traditions and customs; these are rural villages, some of which pre-date Israel.[44] However in 1984, the courts ruled that the Negev Bedouin had no land ownership claims, effectively illegalizing their existing settlements.[60] The Israeli government defines these rural Bedouin villages as "dispersals" while the international community refers to them as "unrecognized villages". Few of the Bedouin in unrecognized villages have seen the urban townships as a desirable form of settlement.[61][62] Extreme unemployment has afflicted unrecognized villages as well, breeding extreme crime levels. Sources of income such as grazing have been severely restricted and the Bedouin rarely receive permits to engage in self-subsistence agriculture, although the ILA has leased on a yearly-basis JNF-owned land in Besor Valley (Wadi Shallala) to Bedouin.[63]

Today, several unrecognized villages are in the process of recognition. They have been incorporated into the Abu Basma Regional Council created for the purpose of dealing with specific problems of the Bedouin. So far they remain without water, electricity and garbage services, although there is a certain improvement - for example, in al-Sayyid two new schools were built and a medical clinic has been opened since its recognition in 2004. Development has been hampered by urban planning difficulties and land ownership problems.[64] Due to the lack of municipal waste services and trash pickup, backyard burning has been adopted on a large scale, impacting badly on public health and the environment.[65]

Negev Bedouin claim the ownership of land totaling some 600,000 dunams (60,000 hectares or 230 square miles) - it is 12 times the size of Tel Aviv.[59] When land ownership claims reach the court, few Bedouin can supply enough evidence to prove ownership since land lots they claim have never been registered in the Tabu, which is the only official way to register them. For example, in the Al Araqeeb land ownership dispute, judge Sarah Dovrat has ruled in favor of the State, saying that the land was not "assigned to the plaintiffs, nor held by them under conditions required by law," and that they still had to "prove their rights to the land by proof of its registration in the Tabu."[66][67]

On September 29, 2003, the government adopted the new "Abu Basma Plan" (Resolution 881), calling for a new regional council to unify unrecognized Bedouin settlements, the Abu Basma Regional Council.[68] This resolution provided for the establishment of seven Bedouin townships in the Negev,[69] and recognizing previously unrecognized villages, which would be granted municipal status and consequently all basic services and infrastructure. The council was established by the Interior Ministry on 28 January 2004.[70]

In 2012, 13 Bedouin towns and cities were being built or expanded.[59] Several new industrial zones are planned, such as Idan haNegev on the suburbs of Rahat.[71] It will have a hospital and a new campus inside.[72]

In September 2011, the Israeli government approved a five-year economic development plan called the Prawer Plan.[73] One of its implications is a relocation of some 30.000-40.000 Negev Bedouin from areas not recognized by the government to government-approved townships.[74][75] This will require Bedouins to leave ancestral villages, cemeteries and communal life as they know it.[75]

A private house being built in South Rahat

The plan is based on a proposal developed by a team headed by Ehud Prawer, the head of policy planning in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). And this proposal, in its turn, is based on the recommendations of the committee chaired by retired Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Goldberg.[73] Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Doron Almog was appointed as the head of the staff to implement the plan to provide status for the Bedouin communities in the Negev.[76] Minister Benny Begin has been appointed by the cabinet to coordinate public and Bedouin population comments on the issue.[77]

According to the Israeli Prime Ministers Office, the plan is based on four main principles:

Establishing a mechanism for binding, implementation and enforcement, as well as timetables.[73]

The plan was described as part of a campaign to develop the Negev; bring about better integration of Bedouin in Israeli society, and significantly reduce the economic and social gaps between the Bedouin population in the Negev and Israeli society.[73]

The cabinet also approved a NIS 1.2 billion economic development program for Bedouin Negev whose main purpose is to promote employment among Bedouin women and youth. Funding was allocated to the development of industrial zones, establishment of employment centers and professional training.

According to the Prawer Plan, Bedouin communities will be expanded, some unrecognized communities will be recognized and receive public services, and infrastructure will be renewed, all within the framework of the Beer Sheva District masterplan. Most residents will be absorbed into the Abu Basma Regional Council and the nature of future communities, whether agricultural, rural, suburban or urban will be decided in full cooperation with the local Bedouin. For those who are to be relocated, 2/3 will receive a new residence nearby.[73]

Tirabin al-Sana's mosque (its dome taken from mosque in the previous Tarabin tribe residence place next to Omer)

The Prawer Plan seeks to address the numerous land claims filed by the Bedouin, offering what the Israeli government states is "significant" compensation in land and funds, with each claim dealt with in a "unified and transparent way".[73]

The proposed solution will be put into binding legislation - Israeli Knesset will work out and accept appropriate legislation in the fall of 2012. Accordingly, the state will reorganize and strengthen the enforcement mechanism. A team headed by minister Benny Begin and Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Doron Almog is responsible for the implementation of this plan.

Critics say the Prawer Plan will turn Bedouin dispossession into law[78][79] and come to a conclusion that relocation of the Bedouin will be compelled. Some even speak about ethnic cleansing.[80] Several members of the European Parliament have heavily criticized the plan.[81]

There are several examples of how the Prawer Plan has been implemented so far (June 2013): after a number of complicated discreet agreements with the state all of the Bedouin of Tarabin clan moved into a township built for them with all the amenities - Tirabin al-Sana.[59] Following negotiations, the Bedouin of al-'Azazme clan will take part in the planning of a new quarter that will be erected for them to the west of Segev Shalom, cooperating with The Authority for the Regulation of Bedouin Settlement in the Negev.[56]

In December 2013, the Israeli government shelved the plan to forcibly relocate about 40,000 Bedouin Arabs from their ancestral lands to government designated towns. One of the plan's architects stated that the Bedouin had neither been consulted nor agreed to the move. "I didn't tell anyone that the Bedouin agreed to my plan. I couldn't say that because I didn't present the plan to them," said the former minister Benny Begin.

The Association of Civil Rights in Israel stated that "the government now has an opportunity to conduct real and honest dialogue with the Negev Bedouin community and its representatives". The Negev Bedouin seek a solution to the problem of the unrecognised villages, and a future in Israel as citizens with equal rights."[82]

The Bedouin benefited from the introduction of modern health care in the region.[4] According to the World Zionist Organization, although in the 1980s, as compared with 90% of the Jewish population, only 50% of the Bedouin population was covered by Israel's General Sick Fund, the situation improved after the 1995 National Health Insurance Law incorporated another 30% of Negev Bedouin into the Sick Fund.[83] There are branches of several health funds (medical clinics) operating in the seven Bedouin townships: Leumit, Clalit, Maccabi and perinatal (baby care) centers Tipat Halav.

The Bedouin infant mortality rate is still the highest in Israel, and one of the highest in the developed world. In 2010, the mortality rate of Bedouin babies rose to 13.6 per 1,000, compared to 4.1 per 1,000 in Jewish communities in the south. According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, 43 percent of deaths among infants up to a year old result from hereditary conditions and/or birth defects. Other reasons cited for the higher infant mortality rates are poverty, lack of education and proper nourishment of mothers, lack of access to preventive medical care and unwillingness to undergo recommended tests. In 2011, funding for this purpose was tripled.[84]

60% of Bedouin men smoke. Among the Bedouin, as of 2003, 7.3% of females and 9.9% of males have diabetes.[85] Between 1998 and 2002, Bedouin towns and villages had among the highest per-capita hospitalization rates, Rahat and Tel Sheva ranked highest.[86] However, the rate of reported new cancer incidents in Bedouin localities is very low, with Rahat having the 3rd-lowest rate in Israel at 141.9 cases per 100,000, compared to 422.1 cases in Haifa.[86]

The Centre for Women's Health Studies and Promotion notes that in the unrecognised Bedouin villages in the Negev, very few health care facilities are available; ambulances do not serve the villages and 38 villages have no medical services.[87] According to the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights-Israel the number of doctors is a third of the norm.[88]

In urban townships, access to water is also an issue: an article from the World Zionist Organization Hagshama Department explains that water allocation to Bedouin towns is 25-50% of that to Jewish towns.[83] Since the State has not built water infrastructure in the unrecognized villages, residents must buy water and store it in large tanks where fungi, bacteria and rust develop very quickly in the plastic containers or metal tanks under conditions of extreme heat; this has led to numerous infections and skin diseases.[88]

In the 1950s, mandatory schooling was extended to the Bedouin sector, leading to a massive increase in literacy levels. Illiteracy decreased from around 95% to 25% within the span of a single generation, with the majority of the illiterate being 55 or older.[89]

Drop-out rates were once very high among Negev Bedouin. In 1998 only 43 percent of Bedouin youngsters reached the 12th grade.[57] Enforcement of mandatory education for the Bedouin was weak, particularly in the case of young girls. According to a 2001 study by the Centre for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion more than 75% of Bedouin women had never been to or completed elementary school.[87] This was due to a combination of internal Bedouin traditional attitudes towards women, lack of government enforcement of the Mandatory Education Law and insufficient budgets for Bedouin schools.[87]

Literacy classes for Bedouin women, Lehavim

However, the number of Bedouin students in Israel is on the rise. Arabic summer schools are being developed.[90] In 2006, 162 Bedouin men and 112 Bedouin women were studying at Ben Gurion University. In particular, the number of female students grew sixfold from 1996-2001.[91] The university offers special Bedouin scholarship programs to encourage higher education among the Bedouin.[92] In 2013, there were 350 Bedouin women and 150 Bedouin men studying at Ben Gurion University.[93]

According to data released by the Knesset Research and Information Center in July 2012, at least 800 young Bedouins from the Negev (out of overall 1300 Israeli students studying in PA) opted for universities in the Palestinian Authority, mainly Hebron and Jenin, preferring Muslim studies (Sharia) and education.[94] It's a relatively new phenomenon, occurring in the past year or two and its main reasons are relatively difficult psychometric exams hampering to be accepted into Israeli universities and colleges (in PA there is no such a requirement), absence of Muslim studies subject in them and a language barrier.[95]

In fall 2011 Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has revived a special program preparing Bedouins to fill a dire need in school psychologists in their communities' schools due to a host of issues particular to this population, from aged-old inter-clan rivalries to the emotional fallout from polygamy. This program is leading to a master's degree in educational psychology for Arab-Israeli and Bedouin students. Program's leaders admit that only a professional from within the society can fully understand the intricacies of its unique situations.[96]

Additionally, a new Harvard University campus will be established in Rahat inside Idan haNegev industrial zone in the coming years. It will be the first campus built in this Bedouin city.[97] Ben-Gurion University of the Negev will oversee the new campus' operations, and it will be considered a BGU branch.

A few years ago the Association of Academics for the Development of Arab Society in the Negev (AHD) has established a new science high school at the Shoket Junction. This school hosts some 380 students in grades nine through twelve from Bedouin Arab towns and villages. First students graduated it in the spring of 2012.[98]

According to a range of studies, including a 2001 study by the Centre for Women’s Health Studies and Promotion at Ben Gurion University, in the transition from self-subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry to a settled semi-urban lifestyle, women have lost their traditional sources of power within the family. The study explains that poor access to education among women has triggered new disparities between Bedouin men and women and compounded the loss of Bedouin women's status in the family.[99] Nevertheless, due to high levels of poverty among the Bedouin more and more Bedouin women are starting to work outside their homes and reinforce their status.

There were reports that some Bedouin tribes had previously conducted female genital mutilation. However, this practice was considered far less severe than what is carried out in some places in Africa, consisting of a "small" cut. The practice was carried out independently by women, and men didn't play a part and in most cases were unaware of the practice. However, by 2009 the practice seemed to have disappeared. Researchers are unclear as to how it disappeared (the Israeli government was not involved) but suggest modernisation as the probably cause.[100]

The Negev Bedouin suffer from extreme rates of joblessness and the highest poverty rate in Israel. A 2007 Van Leer Institute study found that 66 percent of Negev Bedouin lived below the poverty line (in unrecognized villages, the figure reached 80 percent), compared 25 percent in the Israeli population.[101]

Data collected by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry in 2010 show that the employment rate among the Bedouin is 35 percent, the lowest of any sector in Israeli society.[102] Traditionally, Bedouin men are the breadwinners, while Bedouin women do not work outside the home.

As of 2012, 81 percent of Bedouin women of working age were unemployed.[103] Nevertheless, a growing number of women have begun to join the work force.[104]

Several NGOs are helping to expand entrepreneurship by providing professional training and guidance. Twenty Arab-Bedouin women from Rahat, Lakiya, Tel Sheva, Segev Shalom, Kuseife and Rachma participated in a sewing course for fashion design at Amal College in Beer Sheva, including lessons on sewing and cutting, personal empowerment and business initiatives.[105] As a result, tourism and crafts are growing industries and in some cases, such as Drijat, have reduced unemployment significantly.[90] The new industrial zones being constructed in the region are also increasing job opportunities.

The crime rate in the Bedouin sector in the Negev is among the highest in the country.[106] To that end, a special police unit, codenamed Blimat Herum (lit. emergency halt), consisting of about 100 regular policemen, was founded in 2003 to fight crime in the sector. The Southern District of the Israel Police cited the rising crime rate in the sector as the reason for the unit's inauguration. The unit was founded after a period of time when regular police units conducted raids on Bedouin settlements to stop theft (especially car theft) and drug dealing.[107] In 2004 a new police station was opened in Rahat, it has around 70 staff policemen.

In 1979, a 1,500 square kilometer area in the Negev was declared a protected nature reserve, rendering it out of bounds for Bedouin herders. In conjunction with this move the Green Patrol, a law compliance unit was established that disbanded 900 Bedouin encampments and cut goat herds by more than a third. With the black goat nearly extinct, black goat hair to weave tents is hard to come by.[108]

Israeli environmental leader Alon Tal claims Bedouin construction is among the top ten environmental hazards in Israel.[109] In 2008, he wrote that the Bedouin are taking up open spaces that should be used for park land.[110] In 2007, Bustan organization disagreed with this contention: "Regarding rural Bedouin land use as a threat to open spaces fails to take into account the fact that Bedouin occupy little more than 1% of the Negev and fails to call into question the IDF’s hegemony over more than 85% of the Negev’s open spaces."[51] Gideon Kressel has proposed a brand of pastoralism that preserves open spaces for rangeland herding.[111]

Wadi al-Na'am is located close to the Ramat Hovav toxic waste dump, and its residents have suffered from higher than average incidences of respiratory illnesses and cancer.[112] Given the small scale of the country, Bedouin and Jews of the region share some 2.5% of the desert with Israel's nuclear reactors, 22 agro and petrochemical factories, an oil terminal, closed military zones, quarries, a toxic waste incinerator (Ramat Hovav), cell towers, a power plant, several airports, a prison, and 2 rivers of open sewage.[113]

The Bedouin comprise the youngest population in Israeli society - about 54 percent of the Bedouin population is younger than 14.[57] With an annual growth rate of 5.5%,[57] which is one of the highest in the world, the Bedouin in Israel double their population every 15 years.[114] Bedouin advocates argue that the main reason for the transfer of the Bedouin into townships against their will is demographic.[115] In 2003, Director of the Israeli Population Administration Department, Herzl Gedj,[116] described polygamy in the Bedouin sector a "security threat" and advocated various means of reducing the Arab birth rate.[117] In 2004, Ronald Lauder of the Jewish National Fund, announced plans to increase the number of Jews in the Negev by 250,000 in five years and 500,000 in ten years into the Negev through the Blueprint Negev,[118] incurring opposition from Bedouin rights groups concerned that the unrecognized villages might be cleared to make way for Jewish-only development and potentially ignite internal civil strife.[119]

In 1999, 110,000 Bedouin lived in the Negev, 50,000 in the Galilee and 10,000 in the central region of Israel.[120] As of 2013, the Bedouin population in the Negev numbers 200,000-210,000.[1][2][3]

The Bedouin consider themselves Arabs with their origin being modern Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan. The Bedouins are seen as Arab culture’s purest representatives, "ideal" Arabs, but they are distinct from other Arabs because of their extensive kinship networks, which provide them with community support and the basic necessities for survival.

The Negev Bedouin have been compared to the American Indians in terms of how they have been treated by the dominant cultures.[4] The Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages describes the Negev Bedouin as an "indigenous" population.[121] However, some researchers contest this view.[122][123]

The Bedouin have their own authentic and distinct culture, rich oral poetic tradition, honor code and a code of laws. Despite the problem of illiteracy, the Bedouin attribute importance to natural events and ancestral traditions.[124] The Bedouin of Arabia were the first converts to Islam, and it is an important part of their identity today.[125]

Their outfit is also different from that of other Arabs, since the men wear long 'jellabiya' and a 'smagg' (red white draped headcover) or 'aymemma' (white headcover) or a white small headdress, sometimes held in place by an 'agall' (a black cord). Bedouin women usually wear brightly coloured long dresses but outside they wear 'abaya' (a thin, long black coat sometimes covered with shiny embroidery) and they will always cover their head and hair with a 'tarha' (a black, thin shawl) when they leave their house.[126]

Amos Yarkoni, first commander of the Shaked Reconnaissance Battalion in the Givati Brigade, was a Bedouin (born Abd el-Majid Hidr), although not from Negev. Each year, between 5%-10% of the Bedouin of draft age volunteer for the Israeli army, (unlike Druze, Circassian[127] and Jewish Israelis, they are not required by law to do so[128][129]). In August 2012 Doron Almog, head of Israel’s Bedouin Improvement Program Staff, estimated that half a percentage of eligible Bedouins head to the army.[130] Many serve as trackers in the IDF's elite tracking units, tasked with securing the border from infiltration. About 1,600 are currently active duty servicemen, two-thirds of whom come from the north.[131] However, according to The Economist, the Bedouin who were once "unusual among Israel’s Arabs for their readiness to serve in Israel’s army" have slumped in volunteers "to a mere 90 of 1,500-plus men eligible to join up every year" due to a souring of relations between Bedouin and Jewish Israelis.[132]

A 2001 poll suggests that Bedouin feel more estranged from the state than do Arabs in the north. A Jewish Telegraphic Agency article reports that, "forty-two percent said they reject Israel's right to exist, compared with 16 percent in the non-Bedouin Arab sector."[57] But a 2004 study found that Negev Bedouins tend to identify more as Israelis than other Arab citizens of Israel.[133]

Ismail Khaldi is the first Bedouin vice consul of Israel and the highest ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service.[134] Khaldi is a strong advocate of Israel. While acknowledging that the Israeli Bedouin minority is not ideal, he said:

I am a proud Israeli – along with many other non-Jewish Israelis such as Druze, Bahai, Bedouin, Christians and Muslims, who live in one of the most culturally diversified societies and the only true democracy in the Middle East. Like America, Israeli society is far from perfect, but let us deals honestly. By any yardstick you choose—educational opportunity, economic development, women and gay's rights, freedom of speech and assembly, legislative representation—Israel's minorities fare far better than any other country in the Middle East.[135]

Before 1948 the relationships between Negev Bedouin and the farmers to the north was marked by intrinsic cultural differences as well as common language and some common traditions. Whereas the Bedouin referred to themselves as "arab" instead of "bedû" (Bedouin), farmers in the area "fellahîn" (farmers) used the term Bedû, meaning "inhabitants of the desert" (Bâdiya), more often.[136]

Some Palestinians do not consider the Bedouin to be Palestinian, and many Bedouin do not consider themselves Palestinian.[137] Many Bedouin want to disassociate themselves from the ‘term’ Palestinian, which is associated with terrorism in Israel. Already in a tenuous situation, they fear that identifying themselves with Palestinians will injure their status in Israeli society and their potential to gain respect for their rights as citizens. Some scholars regard these developments as an illustration of a strategy of 'Divide to Rule'.[138]

A 2001 study suggested that regular meetings and cross border exchanges with relatives or friends in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Sinai are more common than expected, casting doubt on the accepted view of the relationship between the Bedouin and Palestinians.[136] According to a 2008 report of Human Rights Watch, Bedouin in Israel see themselves as a part of the larger Palestinian Arab minority, with a distinct history of a nomadic and semi-nomadic lifestyle.[53]

^Clinton Bailey (1985). "Dating the Arrival of the Bedouin Tribes in Sinai and the Negev". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient28 (1): 20–49. doi:10.1163/156852085X00091.

^Israel Finkelstein; Avi Perevolotsky (August 1990). "Processes of Sedentarization and Nomadization in the History of Sinai and the Negev". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (279): 67–88.

Abu-Saad, I. (2003). "Bedouin Arabs in Israel between the Hammer and the Anvil: Education as a Foundation for Survival and Development." In Champagne, D. and Abu-Saad, I. (eds) Future of Indigenous Peoples: Strategies for Survival and Development. Los Angeles: UCLA American Indian Studies Center, pp. 103–120.

Ben-David, Y. "The Bedouins in Israel — Land Conflicts and Social Issues." Jerusalem, Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem, (2004)

Lands of the Negev on YouTube, a short film presented by Israel Land Administration describing the challenges faced in providing land management and infrastructure to the Bedouins in Israel's southern Negev region